This invention relates to a system for the removal of the heat of compression produced during the compression of a gas by heat exchange with a liquid cooling medium, and in particular to the cooling of a multicomponent hydrocarbon gas in a plurality of compression stages.
A process for ethylene production is known wherein a suitable starting material, for example naphtha, is cracked, the cracked gas is quenched and is subsequently subjected to a multistage compression before entering a low-temperature separation section wherein lower-boiling hydrocarbons, such as ethylene, ethane, methane, as well as hydrogen are separated by rectification. To remove the heat of compression produced in each compression stage, the cracked gas is subjected to indirect heat exchange with water in tube-type heat exchangers. The relatively high-boiling hydrocarbons which are condensed out of the cracked gas during this heat exchange, being essentially in the gasoline range, are withdrawn and can be delivered as one of the products after a further processing operation. In this conventional process, the pressure drop of the cracked gas when flowing through the individual tube-type heat exchangers is sufficiently large, and the energy requirement to compress the cracked gas so considerably increased, that this invention takes cognizance of these energy requirements and is directed to an improvement thereon.